Recently, prepaid mobile or wireless telephony has become increasingly popular. At a high level, prepaid service allows users to pre-purchase “minutes” of air time or long distance tolls thereby avoiding conventional billing practices (e.g., monthly mailed bills). Prepaid service is particularly desirable for users whose financial credit may not be sufficiently strong to warrant a conventional mobile telephone account where users pay for service that has already been rendered. Traveling users and users who simply do not want the aggravation of bills also often opt for prepaid service. Conventionally, prepaid users purchase minutes directly from a mobile service provider or by purchasing prepaid phone cards that are typically available at, e.g., grocery and convenience stores.
It is not always convenient, however, to purchase prepaid minutes in the traditional manner. In this regard, one recent interesting advance in prepaid wireless service is the ability to transfer minutes from one phone (account) to another, such that the recipient of the minutes need not, himself, directly purchase the minutes. This service is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication US2003/0045267 A1 to Himmel et al. As explained in that publication, a caller with minutes to transfer calls an interactive system, which prompts the caller for a phone number of an intended recipient and the number of minutes or amount of time that should be transferred. The caller's account is thereafter debited that number of minutes or amount of time whereas the recipient's account is credited with the same number of minutes or amount of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,706 goes one step further and not only describes transferring minutes from one phone account to another, but also describes allowing the recipient of the minutes to redeem those minutes for goods and services, including the cash value of the minutes.
Even in view of the recent advances and enhancements in prepaid services that are known to those skilled in the art, there are nevertheless areas in which prepaid telephone service, especially wireless telephone service, can be improved.